Blake Corum happy for perspective gained from injury, wants his teammates to be 'savages'

Michigan football senior running back Blake Corum came back for one more year citing unfinished business. Now, he has been voted as one of the team’s six captains heading into the 2023 season.

The Wolverines consider him the heart and soul of the team, more so now than ever. By putting off an NFL opportunity for one more ride with the Wolverines, he wants to prove he can stay healthy over the course of an entire season and get Michigan over the hump.

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Corum is fully recovered from a torn meniscus suffered in last season’s penultimate regular-season game vs. Illinois. Instead of lamenting on what happened, the Michigan back says that he considers himself fortunate.

“Some people aren’t blessed enough to be able to play sports and were born with disabilities,” Corum told the media on Thursday. “All I had was a meniscus tear. Something minor, man. My outlook on life, the way I attack each and every day, really just taking everything in. Sometimes it’s easy to get too ahead of yourself. From time to time, maybe I did last year. But I told the guys to just be where your feet are and really take it in because time flies. I’m really just taking everything in this year, man. I’m excited to be back. I’m glad I came back. It’s gonna be a great year.”

Corum is cleared for everything, but contact has been limited in fall camp and he is looking forward to putting a hit on someone else. There are no restrictions to his game, and he would argue that he is his best version of himself yet.

“It’s been what I expected, [which is] great,” Corum said. “It felt great being back on the field with the guys and camp has been going very well. I’m just excited to get back out there next Saturday, face someone else. I haven’t hit too much during camp, but I’m excited to hit and just be out there with the guys, with the fans, back in the Big House.

“It’s everything I expected, man. Everything is going as planned. And that’s the amazing thing. When I first got injured I was like, dang, but now I’m happy I got injured. A lot of people won’t say that, but it taught me things and gave me a new perspective. But everything going as planned. I’m back and I’m ready.”

Corum encourages Michigan teammates to be ‘savage’

Corum’s status as team captain makes him a player that everyone will look to emulate. Captains take their teammates under their wing and along for the ride. While Michigan already has a roster full of self-starters and motivated players, he wants them to emulate a dog that protects its territory.

“Everyone’s a dog,” Corum said. “Everyone says it nowadays, but you know, there’s a difference between a dog and a savage. Back home I had a South African Boerbel, his name was Savage. I lived on a couple of acres and every time we let him out, he sniffed the whole property, the perimeter, to make sure nothing was there.

“That’s what being savage is. It didn’t matter if it was a black bear. I’ve seen him chase deer, raccoons… [I saw] it all. He wasn’t a dog, he was a savage. And I was basically saying when we go into the Big House, we need to be savages. We don’t need to be dogs When we go in there, we search the perimeter of our stadium. And whatever’s not supposed to be there gets handled.”

For Corum, his task is now pulling that out of his Michigan teammates and setting a tone. But there has to be buy-in.

“It’s all about wanting to,” Corum said. “A lot of people think you just have it in you. You have it in you, but it takes someone to pull it out of you. And that’s why I was telling the guys, ‘Y’all can be dogs if you want, but I’m gonna try to pull that savage out of you.’

“It’s that mindset of ‘I can’t be stopped. I want to kill everything on the field.’ That’s what savages are about. That’s my job right now. I’m trying to bring the savageness out of my teammates.”